On April 29, the Economic Policy Research Center hosted the very first meeting of the three-day Boot Camp in Tbilisi. The Camp is organized for the representatives of Azerbaijani and Georgian civil society organizations within the framework of the SDC-funded project “ACTION – Activating Civil Society Organizations through Training and Inclusive Operational Network”.
Danielle Meuwly, Regional Director of the Swiss Cooperation Office for the South Caucasus, Embassy of Switzerland in Georgia, and Irina Guruli, Deputy Director at the Economic Policy Research Center, attended the opening ceremony and made the welcoming remarks.
“We believe that engaging with civil society is crucial for the implementation of development programs, ensuring that they meet people’s needs, reduce inequalities, and fulfill the central commitment of the 2030 Agenda to leave no one behind’, Danielle Meuwly noted in her address to the participants. “By supporting the ACTION project, the three-day Boot Camp is part of, we intend to offer the participants an opportunity to activate the Georgian-Azerbaijani Civil Society Network for the benefit of peaceful, sustainable and inclusive development in the South Caucasus.”
At the three-day Boot Camp 16 participants from Azerbaijan and Georgia will participate in the intensive course of seminars and workshops, aimed at strengthening the project participants’ capacities on data analysis, data visualization, digital media communication, and conveyance of the research findings into the clear messages to respective audience.
“We are very pleased with the great interest shown by the representatives of the non-governmental Organizations from Georgia and Azerbaijan. Their interest represents the means for achieving the aim of the project – that is to create a strong civil society network. We hope that the established platform will become the basis for the long-lasting cooperation,” said Irina Guruli, Deputy Director at the Economic Policy Research Center.
After concluding the three-day Boot Camp, the participants from the Georgian non-governmental organizations will host project participants from Azerbaijan in their organizations.
The project ACTION aims at strengthening civil society representatives from the South Caucasus countries on the issues of media communication and democracy, through establishing a platform of exchange between Georgian-Azerbaijani and Georgian- Armenian civil society actors for long-term collaboration and information exchange.
